keeping utah raspberries at their berry best By Brent L. Black, USU Extension Fruit Specialist In northern Utah, raspberries have long been a popular fruit in the home garden and for smallscale commercial production. Raspberries are well suited to local production, have a relatively short shelf life and taste best just after harvest. The Bear Lake region has developed a reputation for having high quality raspberries, but has been plagued by setbacks in recent years. In 2001, most of the fields in the region were diagnosed with a plant virus known as raspberry bushy dwarf, which causes a decline in plant health and small, crumbly fruit. Since the virus is carried to uninfected plants on pollen, it became established throughout the region. The only remedy is to replant with virus-free plants, which Bear Lake farmers did in 2002 and 2003. Just as these replanted fields were reaching maturity and should have been coming into full production, the region
types are damaged by winter freezes, the crop is lost. Summer-bearing varieties do not do well in hot July temperatures. Consequently, fall-bearing raspberries are better adapted to the southern end of the Wasatch Front and other warmer regions of the state. However, the record hot summer temperatures of 2007 also resulted in damage to the fall-bearing crop in Cache Valley and along the Wasatch Front. With Rich County agriculture agent Darrell Rothlisberger and Washington County horticulture agent Rick Heflebower, we are coordinating a multi-site raspberry variety trial in five cooperating locations. Thirty-seven raspberry varieties are included to identify those with sufficient heat tolerance and winter hardiness to thrive in Utah’s varied climates. Several of these varieties are also resistant to bushy dwarf. These trials were planted in the spring of
Brent Black speaks with growers.
suffered from severe winter and spring weather that resulted in significant crop loss in both 2006 and 2007. Raspberry varieties fall into two categories: summer-bearing or floricane-fruiting types, such as Canby, which produce flowers and fruit on second-year canes, and fall-bearing or primocanefruiting types, such as Heritage, which flower and fruit on first-year canes. The growing season in Bear Lake and other high elevation locations in Utah is too short for the fall-bearing types, and when the overwintering canes of summer-bearing
2006, so comparisons are in the early stages. USU Extension has also been active in organizing the Utah Berry Growers Association to provide a forum for farmers to learn about new varieties, crop management and marketing. For fact sheets on general raspberry culture and raspberry irrigation, visit the “Horticulture” and “Fruit” sections of the USU Extension Web site: extension.usu.edu/htm/publications.
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